The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are unequivocally passionate about your pupils and know them extremely well. Since taking up post you have worked hard to establish a strong leadership team with skills and knowledge to complement one another. This provides a balanced and considered approach to the management and strategic direction of the school. Nevill Road has increasing pupil numbers and this is due to the new provision for two-year-old children since September 2016. You and the governors have managed this change seamlessly and rigorously despite the challenges that have arisen. Governors are rightly proud of the school and are well placed to offer appropriate challenge to leaders. Governors are now keen to build stronger partnerships with the junior school to ensure a much closer working relationship which will be of benefit to pupils, staff and leaders. Pupils enjoy being at school and demonstrate exemplary behaviour. They have excellent relationships with staff and one another. Pupils were eager to share their enthusiasm of the school and stated: ‘Nevill Road is a fantastic school where we learn new things every day.’ Pupils talked with keenness about their work in Forest School and demonstrated links to this and resilience in school work. Parents hold the school in high regard and are unanimous in their passion and appreciation. One parent stated: ‘Nevill Road is every parents dream. It has at its heart old fashioned values, where children are made to feel unique and special.’ Parents appreciate the before and after school club provision and recognise the high levels of commitment from staff in all aspects of school life. You have addressed the areas for development identified at your predecessor school’s last inspection. You have established an accurate and reliable assessment tracking system for all pupils and pupil groups. You closely monitor and evaluate the school data. Your self-evaluation summary is concise and gives an accurate picture of the school. You have clearly identified the key strengths of the school and you correctly judge the provision in early years to be a strength. Equally, you have identified areas which are still in need of improvement. You know that most-able pupils will only make rapid progress in lessons where they are stretched and appropriately challenged. Middle leaders are much more confident this year in identifying what greater depth looks like and are therefore setting suitably challenging targets for pupils to enable this to be achieved. Pupils’ understanding of people from different cultures has been broadened. This is evident from discussions with pupils and the focus on the school’s commitment to raising cultural awareness and appreciation such as the ‘we respect all cultures’ display and the map which celebrates the diverse cultural backgrounds of pupils within school. Safeguarding is effective. The school promotes safeguarding very well. Pupils feel safe at school and know how to navigate the internet safely. When I spoke with them, they were articulate and could talk at some length about to avoid potential risks; this is due to the curriculum supporting e-safety content. Pupils could explain what bullying was but had not experienced any bullying in school. Pupils told me about different ways they could protect themselves and support others, such as the 'buddy bench', a place to go in the playground if children need reassurance. The school operates robust systems for ensuring a strong culture of safeguarding exists. Staff and governors have received up-to-date training and can identify signs of abuse. Staff are clear about the procedures to follow should concerns arise in school. Case study records which I scrutinised demonstrated high quality detail and appropriate actions had taken place to support pupils. Inspection findings Staff appreciate your leadership and were keen to share their tremendous commitment and strong team spirit which they greatly value. They stated; ‘we are on a journey, striving to improve and excel.’ Staff are ambitious in their desire for children to achieve the best possible outcomes. The school has a strong and improving record of attainment at the end of key stage 1, expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics being well above national overall. However, more pupils could achieve in greater depth, an area of development for Nevill Road. Your strategies for ensuring most-able pupils attain greater depth by the end of key stage 1 are having a positive impact. This was evident during visits to classrooms where groups of pupils were individually extended in mathematics. However, there is further developmental work to do to ensure that the outcomes are recorded and sustained in reading, writing and mathematics for all pupil groups. I explored a number of key lines of enquiry during this inspection. I looked at: how well leaders challenge all learners to gain greater depth, how well girls progress across key stage 1 and how curriculum provision supports attainment for boys across key stage 1 Following my first line of enquiry, you have correctly identified that boys in the early years and in key stage 1 have tended to lag behind girls in reading and writing at the expected standard or good level of development. You have analysed the reasons for this discrepancy and have put in place clear strategies to further accelerate boys’ attainment. This includes introducing boy-friendly themes such as ‘space topics’ in order to engage boy learners. It was evident from visits to classrooms and book analysis that boys’ attainment is accelerating at a good rate and current school data supports this. We discussed the need for this to continue as a focus for the school. My second line of enquiry was to establish how well leaders challenge girls across key stage 1 to ensure continued progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Previous school data indicates that from the high starting points at the end of early years’ girls fail to convert this level of attainment to expected or greater depth, particularly in reading. Current school data shows an improving data set in relation to girls and progress. School leaders anticipated improved outcomes for the coming year for all cohorts to show a greater improvement on the previous year, above national standards in expected and greater depth. Girls’ progress is on line with target expectations. You agreed that this should continue to be monitored. My final line of enquiry was to look at how effectively disadvantaged pupils were challenged to attain greater depth in reading and writing. Pupil premium children are a relatively small group of pupils who attain well against national expected standards. However, they do not attain well at greater depth in reading and writing. You agreed that a greater number of disadvantaged pupils should be gaining greater depth, particularly in writing. Book analysis and classroom visits demonstrate that greater depth is a school focus for all groups of pupils. Impact on pupil outcomes is evident in current school data. The focus on real books and developing a love of reading along with ‘talk for writing’ is remedying the lack of vocabulary and language development you have noted as a learning barrier. Teachers are making better use of assessment and putting in appropriate interventions where pupil progress is slowing. However, gaps are still evident in the attainment of some pupil groups. School leaders have demonstrated the capacity to drive pupil outcomes forward to ensure that all pupil groups attain and progress to meet the high expectations set by Nevill Road. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: teachers develop a consistent approach to challenge all pupil groups, particularly at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics progress is maintained from the high starting points at the end of early years to the end of key stage 1. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Stockport. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Gaynor Rennie Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection I met with you, the deputy headteacher, senior leaders and governors to discuss safeguarding and the school’s progress since its previous inspection, including the key lines of enquiry we agreed at the start of the inspection. We made visits together to see pupils learning in most classes and looked at a range of pupils’ work. Discussions were held with seven pupils which focused on learning and safety. I spoke with a representative of the local authority. I met with three governors including the chair of the governing board. I scrutinised a range of documents provided by the school, including safeguarding information, school assessments, the school development plan and school’s self-evaluation. I observed pupils at playtime. I listened to some pupils read in Year 1 and Year 2. In addition to this, I assessed the school’s safeguarding arrangements, including the school’s record of suitability checks on staff. I took account of 118 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, which included 108 written comments. I also considered six responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.